May 21, 2014

I'll bet you are reading this while sitting at your desk and probably multi-tasking at the same time.

If you are, your assignment today is to go for a stroll before solving any of today's problems. Why?

Because a long suspected, but now proven, link between walking and increased creativity has been made. The below excerpt is from the NY Times Well Blog.

“Researchers at Stanford University recently decided to test that possibility, inspired, in part, by their own strolls. “My adviser and I would go for walks” to discuss thesis topics, said Marily Oppezzo, at the time a graduate student at Stanford. “And one day I thought: ‘Well, what about this? What about walking and whether it really has an effect on creativity?’”

As a result of the above discussion they structured the following research project:

They placed “volunteers" in a deliberately dull, unadorned room equipped with only a desk and (somewhat unusually) a treadmill. Dr. Oppezzo asked the students to sit and complete tests of creativity, which in psychological circles might involve tasks like rapidly coming up with alternative uses for common objects, such as a button. Then the participants walked on the treadmill, at an easy, self-selected pace that felt comfortable. The treadmill faced a blank wall. While walking, each student repeated the creativity tests, which required about eight minutes.

For almost every student, creativity increased substantially when they walked. Most were able to generate about 60 percent more uses for an object, and the ideas were both “novel and appropriate,” Dr. Oppezzo writes in her study, which was published this month in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

But how practical is it to take an entire team or business unit out for a stroll?

So Dr. Oppezzo next tested whether the effects lingered after a walk had ended. She had another group of students sit for two consecutive sessions of test-taking and subsequently walk for about eight minutes while tossing out ideas for object re-use, then sit and repeat the test.

Again, walking markedly improved people’s ability to generate creative ideas, even when they sat down after the walk. In that case, the volunteers who had walked produced significantly more and subjectively better ideas than in their pre-exercise testing period.

Finally, to examine another real-world implication of walking and creativity, Dr. Oppezzo moved portions of the experiment outdoors. “Most people would probably guess that walking outside should be much better for creativity” than pacing inside a drab office. But surprisingly, her study undermined that assumption. When volunteers strolled Stanford’s pleasant, leafy campus for about eight minutes, they generated more creative ideas than when they sat either inside or outside for the same length of time. But they were not noticeably more creative as a result of their plein-air walk than when they subsequently walked on an indoor treadmill, facing a blank wall.

“It really seems that it’s the walking that matters,” in terms of spurring creativity, Dr. Oppezzo said, and not the setting.

Just how a brief, casual stroll alters the various mental processes related to creativity remains unclear, Dr. Oppezzo added. “This is an acute effect,” she said, making it distinct from any long-term physiological changes that exercise might produce inside the human brain. “It may be that walking improves mood” as its primary effect, she said, and creativity blooms more easily within a buoyed-up mind.

Or walking may divert energy that otherwise would be devoted, intentionally or not, to damping down wild, creative thought, she said. “I think it’s possible that walking may allow the brain to break through” some of its own, hyper-rational filters, she said.

But those are only a few of many likely explanations, she said, adding that she would probably go for a walk later to help her come up with other plausible theories and inventive experiments through which to test them.

If you’re like me, I have a habit of sitting in my chair, staring off into space and thinking and...thinking some more. I always believed that this was a technique for stimulating a breakthrough of thought and creativity.

It appears based on the preceding research that I am really just wasting valuable time and this method is less than ideal.

A brief amble is what I need. The great news is I now have "permission" and a valid objective to get up from the chair, and go for a stroll.

I hope you do too.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

May 20, 2014

I’m not sure how I ran across this blog (it is much more technical than I usually read), but I found Cyrus Stoller’s guidance on modern day communication helpful. Cyrus is an entrepreneur and technology consultant, and it would be a great way to start a discussion on how your team communicates with each other.

With more options available for electronic communication, it only makes sense to choose the correct medium for your messages if you’re going to successfully connect with those in your audience.

However, there do not seem to be any well-understood social rules for these interactions. It’s like going to a wedding in the Northwest (which I did last weekend)—some people are wearing expensive suits and others show up in jeans (I’m not kidding).

Is there any generally accepted convention on what’s appropriate in the world of electronic communication? I don’t believe so. But, Stoller’s open message to those he communicates with would be a great way to have this discussion with your team.

We're in an unfortunate equilibrium where it's not uncommon for people to expect under one-hour response times to emails. In my view, emails should not be used to communicate information that requires immediate action.

Most people I interact with have smartphones; we should agree to use different channels of communication to convey purpose. We're no longer restricted to just phone calls and email.

If I had my way this is how I would have people communicate their requests.

Disclaimer: Realistically this will only work with people you communicate with often e.g. employees/co-workers, family, and close friends.

If you need something to be done in:

30 minutes: call

two hours: text

today: IM

a day or later: email

Priority 0 - Voice Call

If you need something to have been done five minutes ago, call my cell phone. This gives you an opportunity to make sure I understand exactly what you need done and you know exactly when I received your request….

Litmus test: If we were in the same room and I was talking to someone else would you feel comfortable breaking up my conversation and taking me aside? If not, then a voice call is not the appropriate choice.

Priority 1 – Text Message

If you need something done in the next couple hours, send me a text that says something like call me asap or call me when you hit a break point.

This gives me time to gracefully wind down what I'm doing and call you back. I think most things that people find urgent fall in this category. It needs to be done soon, but it can wait up to 30 minutes to an hour….

Litmus test: If we were in the same room and I was talking to someone else would you feel comfortable signaling to me to wind down my conversation? If not, then an SMS is not the appropriate choice.

Priority 1a - Instant Messaging

Instant message works well for slightly more asynchronous communication. You're interested in getting a short response promptly, but it doesn't need to be right away. This is less disruptive than calling or texting. This works well when you need to find out a concrete piece of information before you can proceed.

Litmus test: If we were in the same room and I was in the middle of reading something would you feel comfortable leaving me a hand written note? If not, then an instant message is not the appropriate choice.

Priority 2 - Email

Email should be reserved for requests that you want addressed within the next day or so. Ideally it would be acceptable for people to only check their email a few times per day….

Most people I know feel like they have too many emails to deal with. Think twice about whether email is the right way to communicate your information. You should expect email threads to be truly asynchronous. I want people to move away from expecting near real time responses.

Litmus test: Is this request something that you would feel comfortable dropping in an inbox on my desk when I wasn't there? If not, then an email is not the appropriate choice.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a convention for communicating with those on your team?

If not, it might be worth discussing as a way of not only streamlining your communication with others, but also managing expectations. Let me know how you’re handling this issue in your organization and I’ll publish a few of the responses (reply via email and don’t expect a response for a couple of days :).

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

May 15, 2014

Do you worry about the retention of the agents in your company? Of course you do.

The real estate financial model is built on the concept of an agent producing an annuity. After making a substantial investment upfront (hiring a new agent), you hope the agent produces an ongoing return on your initial investment. If the agent leaves your organization, the annuity stops.

As a real estate owner, executive, or hiring manager, it’s only natural to focus most of your mental energy on the retention of these revenue-producing agents. So, it’s going to be a challenge to recognize what is going on in the broader employment market regarding retention.

However, if you’re going to be successful at “new to real estate” recruiting, that’s exactly what you need to do. Someone else’s retention problem is your opportunity.

[Earlier this year], CareerBuilder conducted a survey among 3,008 workers nationwide to find out who is most likely to change jobs in 2014, what employees value most in the workplace, and what ultimately entices them to stay with their employers.

For the people who were planning to leave their jobs in 2014, here are their top complaints:

Concerns over salary. (66%)

Don’t feel valued. (65%)

Dissatisfied with advancement opportunities. (45%)

Dissatisfied with work/life balance. (39%)

Feel Underemployed. (39%)

Experiencing a high level of stress. (39%)

Poor opinion of their boss. (37%)

Overlooked for a promotion. (36%)

This is very valuable information—especially during an interview. Each of these reasons can be easily crafted into an open-ended question and worked into the flow of the interview.

For example, you might say something like:

“So, we’ve talked a little about your work experience. How does your current employer value the contribution you’re making to your team?”

If the person is feeling undervalued, you’re going to hear about it. This is a probable lead-in to the issues that really matter to this person.

As we’ve discussed many times in the past--unless you find the personal pain of each individual (and eventually answer that pain), you’ll rarely get them to make a change.

Now, let’s look at the opposite side of the argument: What are the factors that typically cause employees to stay in their current jobs?

CareerBuilder also asked respondents who plan to stay put the top reasons for not wanting to leave their current job. Here were the top reasons:

Like the people they work with. (54%)

Experiencing a good work/life balance. (50%)

Satisfied with their benefits. (49%)

Happy with their salary. (43%)

Of course, it would be easy to work these issues into the interview dialog as well. In this case, you’re looking for an emotional connection to one or more of these issues.

For example, if a candidate loves their employee benefits and can’t imagine giving up them up, he’s probably not going to leave his current job. Go find another candidate, this one is wasting your time.

Here’s some homework for you: Make a list of these 12 factors (8 negative and 4 positive) and bring them to your next interview. Try to weave a few of these issues into your interview as open-ended questions and let me know how it goes.

This WorkPuzzle will wrap-up the series on employment trending. There is lots of great news for real estate hiring: the local talent pool is bigger than it’s ever been (Part 1), people are finally feeling confident enough in the job market to voluntarily leave their jobs (Part 2), and research on retention let’s you know where to focus your efforts during interviews (Part 3).

In the hands of a thoughtful hiring manager, this information can be used to produce high-quality hires and profitable new agents.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

May 13, 2014

Today, I’ll continue a short series on several of the hiring trends (in the employment market at large) that we’ve noticed over the last few months, and how these trends could impact real estate recruiting.

If you missed last week’s post, catch up when you get some time or jump into the discussion now. Each of these topics will make sense on its own.

As I’ve been out and about over the last six months, I’ve noticed many more “Help Wanted” signs on display in store windows and other businesses. At least in Seattle, it seems like the job market has improved significantly.

Are you noticing the same thing in your area?

According to recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is happening in many parts of the country. Matt Phillips, a free lance writer and frequent contributor to the business blog Quartz recently made these observations:

Wow. The US labor market shifted into a higher gear in April, as 288,000 new jobs were created. The unemployment rate also tumbled from 6.7% in March to 6.3% in April…. The US is just 120,000 jobs away from recovering all losses from the Great Recession.

In the article, Matt goes on to explain the complexities of this data and how there are some additional factors that must be considered if you want to understand the whole picture.

However, this we know to be true: It’s becoming increasingly easier to find a job in the United States since things bottomed out four years ago.

So, here’s an important question: If the unemployment rate is trending lower (ie. it’s easier to get a job), does that help or hurt new agent real estate hiring?

I know this will sound counterintuitive, but it actually helps. Here is a trend that our company has noticed as we’ve sourced hundreds of thousands of real estate candidates over the last decade:

The lower the unemployment rate, the higher the number of people who will consider becoming real estate agents.

Most hiring managers and owners make the assumption that a tighter employment market would decrease the number of people considering a real estate job because there are more traditional jobs available and the competition for employees (at large) has intensified.

The opposite is true.

Why? The answer has to do with both opportunity and risk.

Understanding Opportunity. People tend to seek out opportunity as more jobs become available. During the recession, individuals who had jobs (especially good jobs) felt fortunate and hung on to those jobs tightly.

This doesn't mean they liked their jobs. In fact, many of them hated their jobs. So, when they start to see light at the end of the tunnel (more jobs becoming available) they are more likely to jump at new opportunities—including real estate opportunities.

Understanding Risk. Becoming a real estate agent involves much more risk than most career choices. If things don’t work out as expected, most people want to have a backup plan in place. That backup plan usually involves returning to a job or career they previously held.

In a low unemployment/robust job market, it's safe to assume that a talented person can get their old job back or find one similar at another company. Once the job market improves to a state where this sense of abundance is widespread, the risk of stepping into a real estate career does not feel so overwhelming.

Bottom line: That “Help Wanted” poster you’re seeing at your local mall is a positive trend for the real estate industry. The risk of moving into real estate is lower than it’s been in years and many talented individuals are finally ready to seriously consider new opportunities. Don’t miss your chance to recruit these individuals.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

May 08, 2014

If you've been following my recent blogs, you will know that this is the final edition of my series on the Science of Sleep. In the first and second articles I covered general information on the neurology and physical impacts of sleep, as well as the types of sleep.

This final article will address "sleeping tips” and a special section from Rod Eller a good friend and client. Also, remember to check out the "Two Myths of Sleep" at the end of each article.

Sleeping Tips

This sleeping tips have been adapted from When You Can't Sleep: The ABCs of ZZZs, by the National Sleep Foundation.

Set a schedule.Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. "Sleeping in" on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it re-sets your sleep cycles for a later awakening.

Exercise:Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise often helps people sleep, although a workout soon before bedtime may interfere with sleep. For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol: Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake. Sources of caffeine include coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal teas, diet drugs, and some pain relievers. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep.

Relax before bed:A warm bath, reading, or another relaxing routine can make it easier to fall sleep. You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual.

Sleep until sunlight:If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body's internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep.

Don't lie in bed awake: If you can't get to sleep, don't just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading, watching television, or listening to music, until you feel tired. The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia.

Control your room temperature:Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep.

See a doctor if your sleeping problem continues: If you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, then you may have a sleep disorder and should see a physician. Your primary care physician may be able to help you; if not, you can probably find a sleep specialist at a major hospital near you. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively, so you can finally get that good night's sleep you need.

Some of you may know Rod Eller, Senior Vice President of Sales at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Carolinas Realty. Rod has become a good friend over the years and chimed in via email during this blog series on sleep. Here are some thoughts from Rod:

"I’ve been doing a lot of reading about sleep over the last year. I have never slept much...six hours tops most of my life.

I have developed new beliefs and I’ve convinced myself that it is a trained habit so I have been in the process of retraining my sleep habits. When I concentrate on it, I sleep more. When I allow normal behavior to take over again, I fall back into the 6 hour or less habit.

Take a look at Tom Rath’s book Eat, Move, Sleep – Tom is a Gallop researcher that did tons of research for his own health reasons. One of the eye openers for me was the chemical issues on the brain related to sleep and more importantly Ericsson’s 1993 study on sleep and performance.

While I knew about Ericsson’s research on the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice as it related to greatness, I was not aware that the study also revealed that the best performers slept an average of 8 hours 36 minutes. What is great about Rath is that he cites scientific data on everything he describes in the book."

When I asked Rod, how does he “practice better sleep”, he answered:

"The bottom-line is you set goals and measure. When I was having the most success was when I had rituals, prepared, and eliminated stimulus that reportedly makes deep sleep troublesome.

Rituals: Shut everything off 1 hour before going to bed – no books, no TV and no electronics (although I do use a bluetooth speaker for playing sleeping noise). I use that time to stretch and breath for relaxation. In bed, it must be dark – no light at all – clocks and such with no display.

Measure: I measured effective sleep. I wore a device that measured my sleep and I used that to try to beat my numbers from the previous night. When I was diligent I added an hour on average to my sleep. I went from an average of 5.75 hours to 6.75 . I even recorded some 7.5 hour nights. The problem is that I had to stay focused on the ritual. I recently lost the habits on an out of town stay and have fallen back into watching ESPN or reading before bed. What Rath wrote in his book is that the hour before you go to sleep frames the rest of the night. He calls it "protecting the final hour."

Thanks to Rod for your insight and personal experience.

Here are your final two sleep myths:

You need prescription drugs if you have insomnia every night.Sleep meds are designed for short-term sleep problems, caused by stressful events like the loss of a job or taking a transatlantic flight.

People with longer-term problems benefit more from cognitive behavioral therapy — essentially, retraining your perceptions of sleep and learning better sleep habits, such as going to bed at the same time every night, avoiding TVs and computers before bed, staying away from caffeine at least six hours before sleep, and other lifestyle changes.

In fact, in 2005, the National Institutes of Health concluded that this type of therapy is as effective as prescription drugs for short-term treatment of chronic insomnia. In many cases, a sleeping pill may not even solve your sleep problem. "About half the people who think they have insomnia may have anxiety or depression," says Daniel Kripke, M.D., a University of California at San Diego sleep expert.

You can make up for lost sleep on weekends.Bingeing on Zs over the weekend and not sleeping during the week — what Harvard sleep expert Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., calls "sleep bulimia" — upsets your circadian rhythms and makes it even harder to get refreshing sleep.

Sleeping until noon on Sunday generally prevents you from hitting the sheets by 10 that night. So instead of correcting your deficit from the week before, you set up a no-sleep cycle for the week to come. "The body loves consistency," says Donna Arand, Ph.D., spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Best to rise around the same time every day, even on weekends.

May 06, 2014

We’re going to take a short break from Dave’s series on the science of sleep. He’ll finish up this topic later this week.

I’ve gained several important insights from his WorkPuzzles on this topic. If you haven’t read these posts, take some time to catch up before his final article. But, don’t stay up late reading them—you need the sleep!

Today, I’ll start a short series on several of the hiring trends (in the employement market at large) that we’ve noticed over the last few months, and how these trends could impact real estate recruiting.

The first trend was recently documented by Richard Florida in The Atlantic Cities online magazine. Richard points out that the number of people who are willing to relocate (ie. move their residence) to obtain a new job is at a near record low.

Americans are moving less and less these days. Last year, just 11.7 percent of us (a near record low) packed up and moved across town or the country, a huge decline from the ferment of the 1950s and 1960s.

…Most moves are local, from neighborhood to neighborhood in the same city or county, and are largely driven by seeking better housing or more proximity to family and friends.

But long-distance moves between states are different. These interstate moves are typically driven by those seeking better job opportunities.

So, if long distance moves are not happening as frequently, what does that tell us about the job market? The National Bureau of Economic Research makes this basic observation in a recent working paper:

Controlling for a wide variety of economic, social, and demographic factors, the study finds that none of the usual suspects – including a higher rate of home-ownership – can fully explain the simultaneous decline in job and residential mobility.

Instead, the evidence suggests that Americans are moving less because they're changing jobs less often, and they're changing jobs less often because the money to be gained from doing so just isn’t as good as it was in the past.

Bottom line: Americans are moving less—and not as far—because it's not nearly as worthwhile economically.

If you dig into the numbers even further, you’ll find that the economic benefit (or lack there of) can actually be quantified.

Looking in more detail at three cohorts of workers from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth covering the late 1970s to the late 2000s, the authors find that the economic benefits of changing jobs has indeed decreased.

For the oldest workers studied, the gains from changing employers added up to about 7 percent. For the two later cohorts, the benefit to switching jobs had fallen to about half that level (about 3%).

Finally, there is one more factor worth considering. It may be that the nature of jobs is changing. Jobs that used to require relocation, either are going away or no longer require relocation to perform the function.

Overall, the authors conclude, our results point more towards the idea that fewer location and job changes are needed in today’s economy. [This] does not necessarily indicate that economic activity in the U.S. has become less dynamic.

It may be due to changes in the employment practices of firms or it may be due to more efficient sorting of workers into positions. Or both.

A few take-ways from today’s discussion:

Job-related relocations will likely stagnate or continue to decline. If your real estate company is heavily dependent on relocation business, there may not be a lot of growth ahead. Of course, there are other types of relocation (ex. retirement migrations to warmer weather), but job-related relocation is not a growth business.

Without job-related relocations, hiring real estate agents becomes easier. This employment trend is another nail in the traditional corporate job coffin. If companies are no longer willing to relocate employees, this leaves many more talented employees open to considering real estate as a career option.

In essence, almost all of the individuals in the labor force are considering jobs they can do without relocating because relocating doesn’t have much of a financial upside and it’s not worth the hassle.

While talented employees used to look regionally, nationally, and maybe even globally to find the best job, they are now more focused on finding local positions. The local talent pool is the place real estate companies have always found agents. Now, the pool has more fish in it.

In my next WorkPuzzle, we’ll spend some time looking at the unemployment numbers. Again, there is good news for real estate companies coming from the broader job market.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

May 01, 2014

At 54 years of age, I have noticed that my sleep patterns are significantly different than they were when I was younger. So I decided to do some research on the latest sleep research and pass on my findings to our readers. There was enough information here to fill 3 editions.

In the first edition I covered general information on sleep and today’s will cover “Why we sleep?” The final article will be on "Sleeping Tips.” Remember to check out the 2 Myths of Sleep at the end of each article.

Why We Sleep? The below excerpt is from NIH (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Although scientists are still trying to learn exactly why people need sleep, animal studies show that sleep is necessary for survival. For example, while rats normally live for two to three years, those deprived of REM sleep survive only about 5 weeks on average, and rats deprived of all sleep stages live only about 3 weeks. Some studies suggest that sleep deprivation affects the immune system in detrimental ways.

Sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly. Too little sleep leaves us drowsy and unable to concentrate the next day. It also leads to impaired memory and physical performance and reduced ability to carry out math calculations. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings may develop. Some experts believe sleep gives neurons used while we are awake a chance to shut down and repair themselves. Without sleep, neurons may become so depleted in energy or so polluted with byproducts of normal cellular activities that they begin to malfunction. Sleep also may give the brain a chance to exercise important neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate from lack of activity.

Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone in children and young adults. Many of the body's cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep. Since proteins are the building blocks needed for cell growth and for repair of damage from factors like stress and ultraviolet rays, deep sleep may truly be "beauty sleep." Activity in parts of the brain that control emotions, decision-making processes, and social interactions is drastically reduced during deep sleep, suggesting that this type of sleep may help people maintain optimal emotional and social functioning while they are awake. A study in rats also showed that certain nerve-signaling patterns which the rats generated during the day were repeated during deep sleep. This pattern repetition may help encode memories and improve learning.

REM Sleep?

We typically spend more than 2 hours each night dreaming. Scientists do not know much about how or why we dream. Sigmund Freud, who greatly influenced the field of psychology, believed dreaming was a "safety valve" for unconscious desires. Only after 1953, when researchers first described REM in sleeping infants, did scientists begin to carefully study sleep and dreaming. They soon realized that the strange, illogical experiences we call dreams almost always occur during REM sleep. While most mammals and birds show signs of REM sleep, reptiles and other cold-blooded animals do not.

REM sleep begins with signals from an area at the base of the brain called the pons. These signals travel to a brain region called the thalamus, which relays them to the cerebral cortex – the outer layer of the brain that is responsible for learning, thinking, and organizing information. The pons also sends signals that shut off neurons in the spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis of the limb muscles. If something interferes with this paralysis, people will begin to physically "act out" their dreams – a rare, dangerous problem called REM sleep behavior disorder. A person dreaming about a ball game, for example, may run headlong into furniture or blindly strike someone sleeping nearby while trying to catch a ball in the dream.

REM sleep stimulates the brain regions used in learning. This may be important for normal brain development during infancy, which would explain why infants spend much more time in REM sleep than adults. Like deep sleep, REM sleep is associated with increased production of proteins. One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not.

And here are my two promised myths of sleep taken from Seven Myths about sleep:

Some people function perfectly on four hours of sleep.

Legendary short sleepers — including Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Margaret Thatcher — don't necessarily do better on fewer Zs. "They're just not aware of how sleepy they are," says Thomas Roth, Ph.D., sleep researcher at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Too little sleep is bad for your health and your image: It can make you ineffective (it impairs performance, judgment, and the ability to pay attention), sick (it weakens your immune system), and overweight. In fact, women who slept five hours or less a night were a third more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over 16 years than women who slept seven hours, according to a Harvard Nurses' Health Study. Oddly, cutting too much sleep and getting less than six hours is associated with the same problems as sleeping too long: a higher risk of heart problems and death. And, of course, cheating on sleep hurts you behind the wheel: "Wakefulness for 18 hours makes you perform almost as though you're legally drunk," says Walsleben.

Waking up during the night means you'll be tired all day.

Au contraire: It might be our natural cycle. Many animals sleep this way, and there are a lot of indications that our ancestors did, too, perhaps stirring nightly to talk or have sex, says Thomas Wehr, M.D., scientist emeritus at the National Institute of Mental Health. When 15 people in one of his studies lived without artificial lights for a few weeks, they wound up sleeping three to five hours, waking up for one or two, then sleeping again for four or more hours — and they said they had never felt so rested.

Until next edition enjoy your dreams and don’t get hung up on waking at 3AM.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

April 28, 2014

At 54 years of age, I have noticed that my sleep patterns are significantly different than when I was younger. So I decided to do some exploration on the latest sleep research and pass on my findings to our readers.

There is so much of interest and value that I am going to share the facts over the next 3 blog editions. There will be a couple of "sleep myths" at the end of each article - just to keep you awake!

"The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don't seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.

People tend to sleep more lightly and for shorter time spans as they get older, although they generally need about the same amount of sleep as they needed in early adulthood. About half of all people over 65 have frequent sleeping problems, such as insomnia, and deep sleep stages in many elderly people often become very short or stop completely. This change may be a normal part of aging, or it may result from medical problems that are common in elderly people and from the medications and other treatments for those problems.

Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven't had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder. Micro-sleeps, or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation. In many cases, people are not aware that they are experiencing micro-sleeps. The widespread practice of "burning the candle at both ends" in western industrialized societies has created so much sleep deprivation that what is really abnormal sleepiness is now almost the norm.

Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous….Driver fatigue is responsible for an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle accidents and 1500 deaths each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Since drowsiness is the brain's last step before falling asleep, driving while drowsy can – and often does – lead to disaster. The National Sleep Foundation says that if you have trouble keeping your eyes focused, if you can't stop yawning, or if you can't remember driving the last few miles, you are probably too drowsy to drive safely."

As promised, to end this edition, I have included 2 Myths about sleep from WedMD:

1. To function best, you need to get eight hours. There's nothing magic about that number. Everyone has different sleep needs, and you'll know you're getting enough when you don't feel like nodding off in a boring situation in the afternoon, says New York University psychologist Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., co-author of A Woman's Guide to Sleep .

2. If you can get it, more sleep is always healthier. You wish. Some studies have found that people who slept more than eight hours a night died younger than people who got between six and eight hours. What scientists don't know yet: Whether sleeping longer causes poor health or is a symptom of it, says Najib Ayas, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia. Long sleepers may suffer from problems such as sleep apnea, depression, or uncontrolled diabetes that make them spend more time in bed.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

It may seem a little awkward at first, but many of these workers are people that you could connect with during your normal business and personal dealings.

For example, let’s suppose that you’re having a life insurance physical and the person sent to your office to take your blood sample shows up for her appointment.

It’s not that hard to say something like this:

“Hey, do you happen to be a contract worker? I was reading recently that about the increase in contract positions...”

Learning about their frustration. If individuals are doing contract work and they’re frustrated with their situation, they’ll be more than happy to tell you about it.

Ask a few questions such as:

“How did you get this job?”

“Was this your first choice, or were you originally looking for something more permanent?”

“Do you feel like there is a future in this job, or is it a stepping stone to something else down the road?”

During the discussion, ask a few more open-ended follow-up questions based on their answers. It won’t be long before you uncover a bunch of frustration about their employment circumstances.

Most of the frustration will center around two issues—they’ll probably dislike the work their doing, and they won’t see a viable future in staying in this role for a long period of time.

Offer a Better Alternative. If someone is experiencing a high level of frustration, they will naturally be more open to new ideas. It’s not hard to say something like this:

“Considering your situation, have you ever thought about working in a field that would offer more long-term potential and give you more control over your future?”

“I manage a local real estate office, and I work with many great agents who come from all different career backgrounds and now have successful careers. Perhaps this could be a fit for you.”

As you carry on this part of the discussion, it’s helpful to also point out that transitioning to real estate from a temporary or contract position can be less risky and financially more palatable for workers in contract positions.

Why? Because contract workers often have some flexibility over the number of hours they work and the schedules they keep. They may be able to slowly ramp down their contract work level as they increase their focus on real estate.

There are a lot of temps/contract employees working in today’s job market. Try identifying them and engaging them in a discussion about their careers. It’s not as hard as it may sound at first, and soon you’ll start to enjoy the challenge. Let me know how it goes!

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

April 22, 2014

Last year, I wrote a WorkPuzzle on the large pockets of workers in the economy that would be well positioned to transition to a real estate career. In total, there are over 6-million workers who are “underemployed” and could potentially use their education and talent to upgrade their careers in the real estate industry.

Who are these individuals? They’re temporary or contract workers (often called temps), and they now make up over 2% of the workforce in the United States.

They may be more open to transitioning to industries such as real estate because the nature of the temp employment world is changing. What used to be a pathway to fulltime employee status in many companies is now a dead-end road. White makes these observations,

For Americans who can’t find jobs, the booming demand for temp workers has been a path out of unemployment, but now many fear it’s a dead-end route.

With full-time work hard to find, these workers have built temping into a de facto career, minus vacation, sick days or insurance. The assignments might be temporary — a few months here, a year there — but labor economists warn that companies’ growing hunger for a workforce they can switch on and off could do permanent damage to these workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans.

Like underemployed workers (those working less than 29 hours per week), these individuals are not receiving traditional employee benefits. This “levels the playing field” for what real estate companies are able to offer new agents.

So while the frontend of the arrangement for real estate agents looks similar to the value proposition being offered to temp workers, there is much more upside potential in the real estate industry. Agents who are successful establish independent businesses that produce higher wages and earn the capacity to purchase the traditional employee benefits.

Most temp workers will never have this advantage. White points out the structural changes that are happening in the workforce are probably here to stay.

Economists say it’s typical for temporary hiring to rise initially as the economy recovers, before businesses are ready to commit to hiring full-time employees. But, … the current pattern doesn’t fit historic norms.

Right now we’re seeing something interesting. We’ve seen [temporary hiring] surpass its previous highs, so it looks like there could be a structural shift going on, too. There’s a reason to believe we might see some increase in the use of temporary help in general.

No one wants to be stuck in a temp job with little opportunity for growth and advancement, but that’s what most traditional companies are offering these workers. To a person in this situation, transitioning to a real estate career may seem compelling.

Finally, who are the people who find themselves in this position? In addition to being numerous, they also share a few other characteristics. First and most importantly, they are people who want to work, and are more established in their careers.

Second, they generally have education and skills that allow them to get up and running certain jobs quickly. For example, White demonstrates how diverse the temp worker market has now become:

More kinds of businesses seem to be drawing that conclusion, as industries not thought of as traditional temp work territory are using more contract workers. [For example, even] adjunct college professors face much of the same uncertainty and lower wages than their full-time counterparts.

Bottom line

There is a large and growing part of the workforce who are employed in temporary/contract jobs. While many of these individuals are educated and talented, they are frustrated because they are not being offered permanent positions and see little hope for career advancement. Transitioning to the real estate industry may be a better option for some of these individuals.

In my next WorkPuzzle, I’ll address the issue engaging these workers successfully and helping them make the transition to a career in real estate.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

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